Pallet with integrated shift prevention features

ABSTRACT

A pallet comprising an upper deck, a lower deck, a front wall, a rear wall, left and right sidewalls, and interlocking structure. The interlocking structure interconnect two or more pallets without external fasteners or tools and may include a number of spaced apart vertically extending protrusions and a number of recesses positioned between the vertically extending protrusions. The vertically extending protrusions may be equally spaced apart from each other or spaced apart from each other at discrete multiples of a predetermined unit distance. The vertically extending protrusions may be U-shaped teeth or of any other suitable geometry and may partially or fully extend between the upper deck and lower deck. The pallet may engage adjacent pallets via the interlocking structure in an offset arrangement so that the pallets engage opposing walls of a transportation enclosure. This prevents the pallets from shifting laterally during transport.

RELATED APPLICATIONS

This patent application is a regular utility non-provisional patent application and claims priority benefit with regard to all common subject matter of earlier-filed U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/267,539, filed on Dec. 15, 2015, and entitled “PALLET WITH INTEGRATED SHIFT PREVENTION FEATURES”. The identified earlier-filed provisional patent application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety into the present application.

BACKGROUND

Pallets are often used for supporting and moving various types of articles and may be constructed from many different materials including wood, metal, fiberglass or plastic. Pallets and the articles supported on them are often transported from place to place in tractor trailers, rail cars, trucks, shipping containers, or other transportation enclosures. To prevent the pallets from shifting during transport, they must be tied down or otherwise secured. Unfortunately, this typically requires the use of straps, belts, or other tie-down mechanisms, the installation of which is difficult and time-consuming. Workers therefore sometimes fail to properly or adequately secure pallets before transporting them. To partially brace pallets against lateral or longitudinal shifting during transport, they may be placed against the walls of the trailer or transportation enclosure in which they are transported. However, unless the width or length of the pallets is a factor of the width or length of the transportation enclosure, the pallets can't be sandwiched between two opposing walls of the enclosure. For example, two pallets that are each fifty inches wide or fifty inches long can be placed side-by-side or end-to-end to engage opposite walls of an enclosure that is one hundred inches wide or long, but they can't be placed side-by-side or end-to-end to engage opposite walls of an enclosure that are not multiples of fifty inches wide or long.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the invention solve the above-mentioned problems and provide a distinct advance in the art of pallets. More particularly, the present invention provides a pallet that can interlock with adjacent pallets in an offset arrangement to reduce shifting of the pallets during transport.

An embodiment of the pallet comprises an upper deck, a lower deck, a front wall, a rear wall, two sidewalls, front forklift channels, side forklift channels, and interlocking structure. The pallet may be formed of molded plastic, synthetic resin materials, or any other suitable material.

The upper deck may include downwardly sloping walls defining a number of V-shaped roll-supporting cradles for supporting rolls, spools, or other irregularly shaped objects. The lower deck may include upwardly sloping walls defining a number of V-shaped roll-engaging cradles for engaging rolls, spools, or other irregularly shaped objects positioned below the pallet. In other embodiments, the upper deck and lower deck may be relatively flat for supporting boxes and the like.

The front forklift channels extend between the front and rear walls of the pallet and the side forklift channels extend between sidewalls of the pallet and allow fork lifts, pallet jacks, or hand jacks to retrieve and lift the pallet from all four sides. The front forklift channels and side forklift channels may intersect each other or may be vertically offset from each other.

The interlocking structure allow the pallet to interconnect with adjacent pallets without external fasteners or tools and may include a number of spaced apart vertically extending protrusions and a number of recesses positioned between the vertically extending protrusions. The vertically extending protrusions may be equally spaced apart from each other or at least spaced apart from each other at discrete multiples of a predetermined unit distance. The vertically extending protrusions may be U-shaped teeth or of any other suitable geometry and may extend all or part of the thickness between the upper deck and lower deck.

The vertically extending protrusions may be arranged in a number of groupings such as outer groups, channel groups, and central groups, or any other arrangement. The outer groups are positioned near the front wall and rear wall of the pallet and may extend to corners of the pallet. The channel groups are positioned between the outer groups and the central group near or in line with the side forklift channels. The channel groups may extend only from the lower deck to the bottom of the side forklift channels or only from the upper deck to the top of the side forklift channels. The central groups are positioned along a middle of the sidewalls between the channel groups.

The vertically extending protrusions may be positioned only on the sidewalls, only on the front and rear walls, or on all of the walls. The vertically extending protrusions may be positioned so that the pallet is laterally symmetric and/or longitudinally symmetric. Alternatively, the vertically extending protrusions on the left sidewall may be offset one half unit distance from the vertically extending protrusions on the right sidewall so that adjacent pallets can be interlocked in-line with each other.

The interlocking structure of each pallet may engage similar interlocking structure of adjacent pallets so that the pallets cannot shift laterally relative to each other. The pallet may be loaded with other pallets in a transportation enclosure such that each pallet is offset from adjacent pallets (e.g., in a staggered arrangement) with at least one pallet engaging one wall of the transportation enclosure and at least another pallet engaging an opposite wall of the enclosure. This allows the walls of the transportation enclosure to serve as bulwarks against lateral or longitudinal shifting of the pallets even when the widths or lengths of the pallets are not factors of the width or length of the transportation enclosure.

The above-described pallet provides several advantages. The pallet can be positioned adjacent to another similar pallet via the pallets' interlocking structures such that the adjacent pallets cannot shift laterally relative to each other. The vertically extending protrusions are spaced from each other so that the adjacent pallets can be selectively offset from each other according to the width of the transportation enclosure. Some or all of the vertically extending protrusions may fully extend from the bottom lower deck to the upper deck so that adjacent pallets will interlock with each other even if they are not completely vertically level with each other. The pallet may be symmetric so that it can be positioned in a number of different orientations. The pallet includes front lift channels and side lift channels so that it can be lifted and moved from a number of directions. This may be particularly useful when pallets are closely positioned in a storage container or transportation enclosure and one or more sides of the pallet is not accessible.

This summary is provided to introduce a selection of concepts in a simplified form that are further described below in the detailed description. This summary is not intended to identify key features or essential features of the claimed subject matter, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the claimed subject matter. Other aspects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the embodiments and the accompanying drawing figures.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES

Embodiments of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a pallet constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 2 is a bottom perspective view of the pallet of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front elevation view of the pallet of FIG. 1;

FIG. 4 is a side elevation view of the pallet of FIG. 1; and

FIG. 5 is a plan view of a number of pallets positioned in a transportation enclosure in a staggered arrangement.

The drawing figures do not limit the present invention to the specific embodiments disclosed and described herein. The drawings are not necessarily to scale, emphasis instead being placed upon clearly illustrating the principles of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

The following detailed description of the invention references the accompanying drawings that illustrate specific embodiments in which the invention can be practiced. The embodiments are intended to describe aspects of the invention in sufficient detail to enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention. Other embodiments can be utilized and changes can be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in a limiting sense. The scope of the present invention is defined only by the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.

In this description, references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” mean that the feature or features being referred to are included in at least one embodiment of the technology. Separate references to “one embodiment”, “an embodiment”, or “embodiments” in this description do not necessarily refer to the same embodiment and are also not mutually exclusive unless so stated and/or except as will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art from the description. For example, a feature, structure, act, etc. described in one embodiment may also be included in other embodiments, but is not necessarily included. Thus, the current technology can include a variety of combinations and/or integrations of the embodiments described herein.

Turning to the drawings, a pallet 10 constructed in accordance with an embodiment of the invention is illustrated and will now be described in detail. The pallet 10 broadly comprises an upper deck 12, a lower deck 14, a front wall 16, a rear wall 18, two sidewalls 20, 22, and interlocking structure 24. Embodiments of the pallet 10 may also include front forklift channels 26 and/or side forklift channels 28. The pallet 10 may be constructed of molded plastic, synthetic resin materials, or any other materials. In one embodiment, the pallet 10 has a generally square-shaped upper surface and is approximately sixty-six inches long, sixty-six inches wide, and twelve inches thick. However, the pallet may be formed in any shape and size without departing from the scope of the invention.

The upper deck 12 may include downwardly sloped walls 30 defining a number of generally V-shaped roll-supporting cradles 32 for supporting rolls, spools, or other irregularly shaped objects. In one embodiment, the upper deck 12 has three cradles 32 for supporting three small rolls or two larger rolls. In another embodiment, the upper deck 12 is substantially flat for supporting boxes, panels, or other flat-bottom objects.

The lower deck 14 may include upwardly sloped walls 34 defining a number of generally V-shaped roll-engaging cradles 36 for engaging rolls, spools, or other irregularly shaped objects. In one embodiment, the lower deck 14 has three cradles 36 for engaging three small rolls or two larger rolls. The cradles 36 are the same shape and size of and vertically aligned with the cradles 32 on the upper deck. This allows the cradles 36 to engage and rest upon the rolls below them when several pallets with rolls on them are stacked. In another embodiment, the lower deck is substantially flat for allowing the pallet 10 to be stacked on top of boxes, panels, or other flat-top objects.

The upper roll-supporting cradles 32, lower roll-engaging cradles 36, and the optional forklift channels 26, 28 may be cooperatively designed such that the cradles 32, 36 prevent objects stored on the pallet 10 from interfering with the insertion of forklift tines, pallet jacks, or hand jacks into the forklift channels 26, 28. For example, the forklift channels 26, 28 may have upper walls which are below the lowermost apices of the cradles 32 and lower walls which are above the uppermost apices of the cradles 36. Thus, the rolls supported on each pallet do not extend into the forklift channels 26, 28 and block or otherwise interfere with the insertion of forklift tines into the forklift channels. Similarly, the rolls on which a pallet rests when several of the pallets are stacked do not extend into the forklift channels 26, 28 of the pallet above and block or otherwise interfere with the insertion of forklift tines into the forklift channels. This allows fork lifts, pallet jacks, or hand jacks to retrieve and lift the pallets via the forklift channels without damaging the rolls even when several of the pallets are stacked on top of each other.

Although an embodiment of the pallet 10 includes cradles 32, 36 and forklift channels 26, 28 configured to prevent rolls or other objects stored on the pallet from extending even partially into the forklift channels, other embodiments of the pallet may be configured such that the rolls extend partially into the forklift channels 26, 28 as long as the rolls don't prevent forklift tines from entering the forklift channels.

The interlocking structure 24 interconnect two or more pallets without external fasteners or tools and may include a number of spaced apart vertically extending protrusions 38 and a number of recesses 40 positioned between the vertically extending protrusions 38. The vertically extending protrusions 38 may be equally spaced apart from each other or at least spaced apart from each other at discrete multiples of a predetermined unit distance. For example, a second vertically extending protrusion may be spaced one unit distance from a first vertically extending protrusion, while a sixth vertically extending protrusion may be spaced two unit distances from a fifth vertically extending protrusion. The vertically extending protrusions 38 may be U-shaped teeth or any other suitable geometry and may partially or fully extend between the upper deck 12 and lower deck 14. The vertically extending protrusions 38 may be integrally formed in the pallet 10 or connected to the pallet 10 via fasteners or other attachment components.

The vertically extending protrusions 38 may be arranged in outer groups 42, channel groups 44, and central groups 46, or any other arrangement. The outer groups 42 are positioned near the front wall 16 and rear wall 18 and may extend to corners of the pallet 10. In one embodiment, the outer groups 42 include five vertically extending protrusions 38 and four recesses 40. The channel groups 44 are positioned between the outer groups 42 and the central group 46 near the side forklift channels 28. The channel groups 44 may extend only from the lower deck 14 to the bottom of the side forklift channels 28 or only from the upper deck 12 to the top of the side forklift channels 28. In one embodiment, the channel groups 44 include four vertically extending protrusions 38 and three recesses 40. The central groups 46 are positioned along a middle of the sidewalls 20, 22 between the channel groups 44. In one embodiment, the central groups 46 include two vertically extending protrusions 38 and one recess 40.

The vertically extending protrusions 38 may be positioned only on the sidewalls 20, 22, only on the front wall 16 and rear wall 18, or on all of the walls 16, 18, 20, 22. The vertically extending protrusions 38 may be positioned so that the pallet 10 is laterally symmetric and/or longitudinally symmetric. Alternatively, the vertically extending protrusions 38 on the left sidewall 20 may be offset one half unit distance from the vertically extending protrusions 38 on the right sidewall 22 so that adjacent pallets can be interlocked in-line with each other.

Other aspects of the invention are described and illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 9,162,797 (the '797 patent) entitled PALLET WITH TRAY STACKING STRUCTURE, issued Oct. 20, 2015, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. For example, as described in the '797 patent, the pallet 10 may include stacking features that “lock” several pallets together when they are stacked empty and a number of dimples that provide structural support and reduce the weight of the pallet.

In other embodiments, the pallet 10 may include a container, canister, tank, frame, crate, or any other retainer or stacking component. The retainer or stacking component may be connected to or may be an integral part of the pallet body. For example, the pallet 10 may include crate walls or a tank frame integrated with and extending upwardly from the walls 16, 18, 20, 22 for holding a fluid container. Alternatively, the crate walls or tank frame may be bolted or welded to the pallet body. The pallet 10 may also include other features not relevant to the present invention.

Use of the pallet 10 will now be described in more detail. First, lifting forks of a forklift, lifting jack, or hand jack may be inserted into the front lift channels 26 or side lift channels 28, depending on which set of lift channels is more accessible. The pallet 10 may then be raised and moved via the lift channels 26, 28. The pallet 10 may then be positioned in a transportation implement or enclosure or on a floor, ground surface, shelf, rack, another pallet, or previously stacked flat objects.

The pallet 10 may also be positioned on previously stacked round objects via the lower cradles 36. That is, the pallet 10 may be positioned so that the previously stacked round objects are positioned in some or all of the lower cradles 36. Additional flat objects or other pallets may be stacked on top of the pallet 10. Round objects may be also be stacked on the pallet 10 via the upper cradles 32.

With reference to FIG. 5, a number of pallets 10A-D may be positioned adjacent each other in interlocking engagement in a transportation enclosure 100 having a left wall 102, a right wall 104, a front wall 106, and a rear wall 108. The transportation enclosure 100 may also include a side brace 110, a front brace 112, a rear brace 114, or any other spacers or bumpers.

The pallet 10A may be positioned near the rear wall 108 and right wall 104 such that the left sidewall 20 of the pallet 10 faces the rear wall 108 and abuts the rear brace 114 and the rear wall 18 of the pallet 10 faces the right wall 104 and abuts the side brace 110. The pallet 10B may be positioned adjacent to and offset from the pallet 10A such that the interlocking structure 24 on the right sidewall 22 of the pallet 10B interlocks with the interlocking structure 24 on the left sidewall 20 of the pallet 10A. That is, the recesses 40 of the pallet 10A may receive vertically extending protrusions 38 of the pallet 10B while recesses 40 of the pallet 10B receive vertically extending protrusions 38 of the pallet 10A. The pallets 10A, 10B can engage each other at one of a plurality of laterally offset distances, with the laterally offset distances being multiples of the unit distance plus between zero and one half of the unit distance. For example, because the pallets 10A and 10B each are symmetric, they must always be laterally offset from each other some multiple of the unit distance plus one half of the unit distance. The particular offset distance may be chosen so that the pallets 10A, 10B cannot shift between the left wall 102 and right wall 104 of the transportation enclosure 100.

Additional pallets 10C and 10D may then be inserted into the transportation enclosure 100 such that adjacent pallets are offset from each other in a staggered formation. The front brace 112 may then be positioned adjacent the end pallet 10D so that the pallets 10A-D cannot shift between the front wall 106 and the rear wall 108. In this way, the pallets 10A-D may be transported in horizontally fixed positions within the transportation enclosure 100.

The above-described pallet 10 provides several advantages over conventional pallets. For example, the pallet 10 can be positioned adjacent to another similar pallet via interlocking structure 24 such that the adjacent pallets cannot shift laterally relative to each other. The vertically extending protrusions 38 are spaced from each other so that the adjacent pallets can be selectively offset from each other according to the width of the transportation enclosure or implement. Some or all of the vertically extending protrusions 38 may fully extend from the bottom lower deck 14 to the upper deck 12 so that adjacent pallets will interlock with each other even if they are not completely vertically level with each other. The pallet 10 may be symmetric so that it can be positioned in a number of different orientations. The pallet 10 includes front lift channels 26 and side lift channels 28 so that it can be lifted and moved from a number of directions. This may be particularly useful when pallets are closely positioned in a storage container or transportation enclosure and one or more sides of the pallets are not accessible.

Although the invention has been described with reference to the embodiments illustrated in the attached drawing figures, it is noted that equivalents may be employed and substitutions made herein without departing from the scope of the invention as recited in the claims. 

Having thus described various embodiments of the invention, what is claimed as new and desired to be protected by Letters Patent includes the following:
 1. A pallet comprising: an upper deck for supporting objects thereon, the upper deck having a front edge, a rear edge, a first side edge, and a second side edge; a lower deck opposite the upper deck, the lower deck having a front edge, a rear edge, a first side edge, and a second side edge; a front wall extending between the front edge of the upper deck and the front edge of the lower deck; a rear wall extending between the rear edge of the upper deck and the rear edge of the lower deck; a first sidewall extending between the first side edge of the upper deck and the first side edge of the lower deck; a second sidewall extending between the second side edge of the upper deck and the second side edge of the lower deck; and interlocking structure configured to interconnect with interlocking structure of an adjacent pallet to inhibit relative shifting of the pallets.
 2. The pallet of claim 1, wherein the interlocking structure is further configured to interconnect with the interlocking structure of the adjacent pallet such that the pallets are laterally offset from each other for inhibiting lateral shifting of the pallets relative to a transportation implement during transport.
 3. The pallet of claim 2, wherein the interlocking structure comprises a plurality of spaced apart vertically extending protrusions and a plurality of recesses between the vertically extending protrusions, the vertically extending protrusions being configured to engage recesses of the interlocking structure of the adjacent pallet and the recesses being configured to receive vertically extending protrusions of the interlocking structure of the adjacent pallet such that the vertically extending protrusions of the pallet and the vertically extending protrusions of the adjacent pallet cooperatively prevent the pallets from shifting laterally relative to each other.
 4. The pallet of claim 3, wherein the vertically extending protrusions are spaced from each other at discrete multiples of a predetermined unit distance such that the pallet can engage the adjacent pallet at one of a plurality of laterally offset distances, the laterally offset distances being multiples of the unit distance plus between zero and one half of the unit distance.
 5. The pallet of claim 3, wherein at least some of the vertically extending protrusions extend from the lower deck to the upper deck.
 6. The pallet of claim 3, further comprising lift channels extending from the first sidewalls to the second sidewalls, some of the vertically extending protrusions extending from the lower deck to the lift channels.
 7. The pallet of claim 3, wherein the interlocking structure comprises a plurality of interlocking structure groupings for interlocking with interlocking structure groupings of the adjacent pallet.
 8. The pallet of claim 7, further comprising lift channels extending from the sidewalls to the second sidewalls, wherein the interlocking structure groupings include outer groups positioned near corners of the pallet, lift channel groups positioned near the lift channels, and center groups positioned near midpoints of the first and second sidewalls.
 9. The pallet of claim 8, wherein the interlocking structure of the outer groups and the center groups extend from the lower deck to the upper deck and the interlocking structure of the lift channel groups extend from the lower deck to the lift channels.
 10. The pallet of claim 9, wherein the outer groups each include five vertically extending protrusions, the lift channel groups each include four vertically extending protrusions, and the center groups each include two vertically extending protrusions.
 11. The pallet of claim 1, wherein the interlocking structure is positioned on the first sidewall and the second sidewall for interlocking the pallet with adjacent pallets in a side-by-side arrangement.
 12. The pallet of claim 1, wherein the interlocking structure is positioned on the first sidewall and the second sidewall for interlocking the pallet with adjacent pallets in a side-by-side arrangement and the front wall and rear wall for interlocking the pallet with adjacent pallets in a front-to-back arrangement.
 13. The pallet of claim 1, wherein the pallet is laterally symmetric and longitudinally symmetric.
 14. The pallet of claim 1, wherein the interlocking structure is integrally formed in the pallet.
 15. A pallet comprising: an upper deck for supporting objects thereon, the upper deck having a front edge, a rear edge, a first side edge, and a second side edge; a lower deck opposite the upper deck, the lower deck having a front edge, a rear edge, a first side edge, and a second side edge; a front wall extending between the front edge of the upper deck and the front edge of the lower deck; a rear wall extending between the rear edge of the upper deck and the rear edge of the lower deck opposite the front wall; a first sidewall extending between the first side edge of the upper deck and the first side edge of the lower deck; a second sidewall extending between the second side edge of the upper deck and the second side edge of the lower deck opposite the first sidewall; a plurality of lift channels extending from the first sidewall to the second sidewall; and interlocking structure integrally formed in the pallet, the interlocking structure comprising: a plurality of spaced apart vertically extending protrusions; and a plurality of recesses between the vertically extending protrusions, the vertically extending protrusions being configured to engage recesses of interlocking structure of an adjacent pallet and the recesses being configured to receive vertically extending protrusions of the interlocking structure of the adjacent pallet such that the vertically extending protrusions of the pallet and the vertically extending protrusions of the adjacent pallet cooperatively prevent the pallets from shifting laterally relative to each other.
 16. The pallet of claim 15, wherein some of the vertically extending protrusions extend from the lower deck to the lift channels.
 17. The pallet of claim 15, wherein the interlocking structure comprises a plurality of interlocking structure groupings for interlocking with interlocking structure groupings of the adjacent pallet.
 18. The pallet of claim 17, wherein the interlocking structure groupings include outer groups positioned near corners of the pallet, lift channel groups positioned near ends of the lift channels, and center groups positioned near midpoints of the first and second sidewalls.
 19. The pallet of claim 18, wherein the interlocking structure of the outer groups and the center groups extend from the lower deck to the upper deck and the interlocking structure of the lift channel groups extend from the lower deck to the lift channels.
 20. The pallet of claim 19, wherein the outer groups each include five vertically extending protrusions, the lift channel groups each include four vertically extending protrusions, and the center groups each include two vertically extending protrusions.
 21. A pallet comprising: an upper deck for supporting objects thereon, the upper deck having a front edge, a rear edge, a first side edge, and a second side edge; a lower deck opposite the upper deck, the lower deck having a front edge, a rear edge, a first side edge, and a second side edge; a front wall extending between the front edge of the upper deck and the front edge of the lower deck; a rear wall extending between the rear edge of the upper deck and the rear edge of the lower deck opposite the front wall; a first sidewall extending between the first side edge of the upper deck and the first side edge of the lower deck; a second sidewall extending between the second side edge of the upper deck and the second side edge of the lower deck opposite the first sidewall; a plurality of lift channels extending from the first sidewall to the second sidewall; and interlocking structure integrally formed in the pallet, the interlocking structure comprising: a plurality of vertically extending protrusions spaced from each other at discrete multiples of a predetermined unit distance; and a plurality of recesses between the vertically extending protrusions, the vertically extending protrusions being configured to engage recesses of interlocking structure of an adjacent pallet and the recesses being configured to receive vertically extending protrusions of the interlocking structure of the adjacent pallet such that the pallet can engage the adjacent pallet at one of a plurality of laterally offset distances, the laterally offset distances being multiples of the unit distance plus one half of the unit distance so that the vertically extending protrusions of the pallet and the vertically extending protrusions of the adjacent pallet cooperatively prevent the pallets from shifting laterally relative to each other and relative to a transportation implement. 